Toshiba Unloads Time Warner Shares

Toshiba Corp., the world’s largest maker of notebook computers, sold 9.5 million shares of entertainment giant Time Warner Inc., which itself bought back 1.9 million shares of the stake, the companies said. The remainder went to other investors. The sale was made for $84 a share, or a total of about $798 million, and was oversubscribed, said Toshiba spokesman Kenichi Sugiyama. Merrill Lynch & Co. handled the trade. The sale means Toshiba, which had owned about 1.7% of Time Warner, drops its stake to less than 0.2%. Time Warner’s stock has soared by about 49% in the last 12 months on rising cash flow and a push to trim costs and pay down debt. Toshiba, on the other hand, has seen its stock decline amid a recession in Japan. Time Warner stock rose 56 cents to $85.06 on the NYSE.